


So Show Me Family

by swedishstylepatrol



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Bullying, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 17:31:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6338569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swedishstylepatrol/pseuds/swedishstylepatrol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kind of fill for this prompt on kmm: Gwaine/Lancelot, modern AU, Lancelot is a single father to the young Galahad (mother has passed away). Usually Gwaine just does not get involved with anything involving kids. But, dammit, he really likes Lancelot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Show Me Family

Gwaine gracefully falls off the bed. It’s not a particularly high bed and it’s such a graceful fall he barely makes any noise. Lance doesn’t even make any noise from where he’s curled up on the bed; he stirs but doesn’t wake up. Gwaine carefully stands up, manoeuvring through the clothes strewn on the floor. He finds his shirt and his boxers and heads to the bathroom to take a piss. Lance is still asleep when Gwaine finishes his business so he thinks it’s safe and romantic to go downstairs and cook Lance a breakfast or something. Gwaine isn’t really the homemaker kind but he can cook eggs and make coffee and stuff. 

He’s yawning as he comes into the kitchen and then stops dead in his tracks.

First, he surmises he is hallucinating a green haired troll. Then, he figures he’s not that out of it; he isn’t even hung over so there’s no chance for that. 

After those thoughts, he has nothing else to think and so is stumped as to why there’s a child with a green mohawk in the kitchen, eating cereal out of a bowl, staring back at Gwaine with a smirk.

Gwaine should have fucking known. Lance is perfect in every way, on all fronts (and back, Gwaine smirks), and he should have known there’s a catch to all of this. Gwaine isn’t that fucking lucky.

Gwaine consciously pulls his shirt lower just in case there’s something unseeing down there but the kid doesn’t break Gwaine’s eye contact, even as he puts another spoonful of cereal in his mouth. Gwaine can’t believe he’s losing a stare down to a kid. He hates kids.

“My name’s Galahad,” the kid says. Gwaine is ready to bolt out of the house, even if he’s only wearing a shirt and his boxers. He stutters before he says, “I’m…Gwaine…Green…”

“Green!” The kid exclaims, “like my hair!”

Gwaine nods slowly, “Yeah. Uh, so…”

“Oh, are you hungry too? Mama just ran out, but she’ll be back with food!”

That’s when Gwaine starts panicking. His chest is suddenly too tight, his throat suddenly itches. His hands are clammy. He’s losing his well-cultivated cool in front of a kid.

“Are you okay?”

Gwaine’s on the verge of screaming no when the door opens and a girl comes through the front door, carrying two grocery bags.

“Mama!” The kid, Lance’s kid, this lady’s kid, says and Gwaine seriously is ready to leave. 

The girl is pretty and she smiles at Galahad and she comes in and puts the bags on the counter. She turns to Gwaine then and tilts her head in confusion.

Oh shit, Gwaine thinks, she’s going to eat him alive. Fuck.

Gwaine puts his hands up in defeat, eyes wide, “I swear I didn’t know he had a family. Please don’t scream at me. I’ll run out right now I won’t even take my shoes. I’m sorry.” Gwaine’s scrambling to get out of her way but she stops him with a hand. Oh god, Gwaine’s going to die. This is how he dies, in a really hot guy’s house, by said guy’s mad wife, while their kid watches. He’s going to die in his boxers; home wrecker justifiably killed, the headlines are going to read.

“You want to eat breakfast first?” She asks, as she gestures to the table and to the chair.

“Yeah! Stay! It’s Crepe Saturday!”

What?

“Uh…”

“Daddy makes the best crepes. He lets me put all the toppings.”

By now, and not of his own volition, he is sitting beside Galahad watching the girl take out the crepe maker and taking out fresh fruits and Nutella and whipped cream from the bags she brought. 

“What toppings do you like?” Galahad asks excitedly and Gwaine has to turn his attention back to the kid. Gwaine’s at a loss for words, he probably used it all up sweet-talking Lance into bed. Holy shit, he remembers, Lance and last night and feels extremely guilty and stupid.

When Gwaine doesn’t say anything, Galahad goes on with what he likes. 

“Nutella! You have to put Nutella! Strawberries! Whipped Cream! Orange slices! Shredded coconut!”

As he lists so many more things that Gwaine thinks should really not be eaten together, or else he just doesn’t have an adventurous palette, Lance comes down the stairs with his perfectly coiffed hair as if he didn’t just roll out of bed. 

“Gally, what’d I say about using your outside voice inside?”

“We don’t.”

Lance smiles at his kid and Galahad jumps off his chair to greet his dad. Lance hugs his kid tight and presses a kiss to his forehead. 

“Frey,” Lance says, greeting the girl who’s chopping up the strawberries into littler pieces.

She kisses his cheek and then very subtlety (Gwaine still sees it though) tilts her head toward Gwaine. Lance smiles and then turns the very charming smile at Gwaine.

“Hey,” Lance greets him, coming around the table to give Gwaine his own kiss. Which Gwaine would gladly take if not for the fact that he still doesn’t know what the ever loving fuck is going on. 

“Can…someone please…” The girl, Frey, laughs at him when he tries to ask what’s going on. She points at him with the spoon she’s using to scoop out some chocolate. 

“I think your boyfriend’s kind of confused.”

And Gwaine just nods, like a lost child. 

“Oh, right!” Lance says, “This is Freya, my sister. And Galahad, my son.”

“But…Mama?” 

“Oh! Yeah, she’s like the only mother figure he knew growing up so. But she’s really his aunt.”

And okay, Gwaine feels so much better with that information. No one’s going to brand him a home wrecker. But he’s still antsy about the whole kid thing because he isn’t a kid person, never was, even when he was a child himself. He’s not good with them and he’s resolved to never have them or get with anyone who has them.

He sighs, “Okay, I’m going to go.” He regrets it the moment he says it because Lance’s face falls, his smile disappears instantly. Gwaine stands up and doesn’t even listen to what Lance is trying to say as Gwaine walks back up the stairs to get his shit.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Lance asks, determined to keep Gwaine there but Gwaine is determined to go. 

“I, um, just…”

“Gwaine?”

Gwaine slips on his shoes even though they are not slip ons and rushes out the door. He takes a deep breath because he should really be regretting this decision. For all the work he’s done the past couple of months to be with Lance, he should really not be walking out. This is Merlin’s fault; that busybody, setting them up and not telling him that Lance has a kid. This is important information people need to know. Gwaine pulls out his phone from his pockets and thumbs through his messages until he gets to Merlin and types out “why didn’t you tell me Lance has a kid?”

Merlin’s reply comes two seconds later: “thought you’d like him enough to not care????”

Okay, Gwaine can admit, to himself only, that these feelings he has for Lance are not unimportant. They’re rather annoying actually. Because he hasn’t felt anything like this before. Lance is nice and noble; the kind of guy who opens the door for everyone, or protects people who are being harassed at a bar, or feed hungry children while saving baby pandas or something. In fact, Lance took them to a homeless shelter on their first date so they can serve food for the whole day, which turned out to be a lot of fun and Gwaine got to meet a lot of people.

Saint Lancelot du Lac, and Gwaine is walking out on him because he has a kid.

***

It’s second nature to Gwaine to wallow in his pity and drink and go clubbing. So that’s where he is on a Tuesday night. He’s not proud of it but Gwaine’s not been proud of himself for a long time. 

“You’re stupid,” Merlin’s voice is sharp in his ear. Gwaine nods.

“Lance told me what happened.”

“Cool,” Gwaine says nonchalantly, downs another glass of…whatever he asked the bartender.

“No,” Merlin shakes his head, and pries the glass away from Gwaine’s hand. “Not cool. You’ve been pining for him forever and then you walk out just because you find out he’s got a kid?”

“It wasn’t going to work out.”

Merlin glares, “That doesn’t make sense.”

“It does to me.”

“How?”

“You know how.”

“Gwaine…” Merlin’s voice drops and then he puts a hand on Gwaine’s shoulder. “Just because your old man didn’t think kids were worth it…”

“Kids are snotty and bratty…”

Merlin snorts at him, “You know, Gally’s a really sweet kid. He was asking Freya why the guy his Daddy really likes doesn’t come over to their house.”

Gwaine drops his head on the bar counter. “I really like him, Merls.”

“I know.”

“I really hate kids, Merls.”

“I’m sorry.”

***

Everything comes to a head, as is wont of these things. He can’t run away forever. Lance corners him at work, pulls him into one of the conference rooms, and tells him to sit down. If this isn’t a severe situation Gwaine would probably be turned on by how authoritative Lance is being. 

“I don’t understand,” Lance says, raking his hand through his hair as he sits down next to Gwaine. Gwaine doesn’t want to look at him.

Gwaine decides that he should just tell Lance straight up, “I don’t like kids.”

Lance’s head falls, and there’s nothing else for him to do. It’ll be unreasonable, downright impossible for him to ask Lance to pick between him and his kid. So Gwaine knows he has to be the one who’s out of the picture.

“I see.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry.”

Lance stands up, “I’ll see you around then.” Gwaine rolls his eyes, why does Lance have to be so fucking noble and nice, and it’s just as well they end things because Gwaine so doesn’t deserve him.

***

A month passes awkwardly. Gwaine avoids Lance, and Lance still smiles at him. 

Gwaine’s walking home in the middle of winter because he forgot to change his tires and they’re basically useless in the icy roads. The air is biting at his face and his ears but he’s not going to risk the flow of his hair by wearing a hat. He’s walking by the school and he usually crosses the road there even though he’s on the right side of the street just to avoid the kids but something catches his eyes.

There’s three ten year old assholes whaling on some younger kid, pelting him with crappily made snowballs. Gwaine’s about to turn the other cheek when the bullied kid gets up from the snow covered ground and tries to throw his own snowballs at his assailants. The green hair gives it all away. Gwaine doesn’t like kids, he hates those bullies even more, but he’s not just about to pretend he didn’t see Lance’s kid get bullied. 

Gwaine finds himself running towards the kids and it’s not like he can kick the bullies’ asses. Instead, Gwaine gets in the middle of the unfair snowball fight to make a shield of himself.

“Don’t you freaks have anything better to do than bully other people?”

The three ten year olds stare at Gwaine and then pelt him with their snowballs. Gwaine’s an adult, he reminds himself, and lets them throw at him until they get tired of him. Eventually they leave, cruising for another victim but Gwaine stays with Galahad who, close up, looks worse than he thought. One of the snowballs probably hit him real hard on the face, or those douche-bags swung their fists at him.

“Hey, you okay?” Gwaine asks, despite the fact that there’s a hell of a bruise on Galahad’s cheek.

Galahad has his hand on his face, shaking his head, on the verge of tears. Gwaine bites his bottom lip; he has no idea what to do with children let alone crying ones.

Gwaine doesn’t realize he’s still hugging the kid, but Galahad doesn’t back away either. If anything, he’s clinging onto Gwaine pretty tightly with his free arm.

“Is someone picking you up?” Galahad shakes his head.

“Do you walk home alone?” Galahad nods.

“All right, kid.” Gwaine takes Galahad’s hand in his and starts walking down the street.

“Where are we headed?”

“Bus stop.”

This old lady sitting across them on the bus eyes Gwaine and then shoots pitying glances at Galahad. Galahad ignores her, just as Gwaine does. The kid even shuffles closer to Gwaine and Gwaine’s arm tightens around his shoulder. The lady looks away then.

When they get to Galahad’s house, he presents Gwaine with the key and Gwaine opens the door for them. Galahad kicks off his shoes and shucks off his winter jacket and heads straight for the couch. He dives in and pulls the blanket hanging off the back of the couch. Gwaine doesn’t stop him but he does pull out his phone and dials Lance’s number.

“Hey, you have to come home. I’m with Galahad. He’s hurt.”

Galahad perks up from where he’s curled up on the couch and shouts, “Daddy! Come home!”

Gwaine winces when Lance swears in his ear. “Fuck.”

Gwaine pockets his phone again and walks to the living room, sits on the one chair next to the couch.

“It hurts, Gwaine.”

Gwaine stands up immediately and, as someone who has been in countless brawls he should have really thought this through. There’s an icepack in their freezer which is good. He hands it over to Galahad and Galahad puts it on his face. He’s crying and Gwaine thinks this is the moment he should be patting the kid’s back or something but he can’t move.

Lance doesn’t take any time at all. He’s through the door and on his knees cradling his kid to him. Galahad cries on his dad’s shoulder and Gwaine just stands there, helpless.

Lance tries to ask what happened but Galahad refuses to say anything, just keeps crying. Lance looks up to Gwaine with half-confusion and half-gratitude.

It takes Galahad a couple minutes to fall asleep, tired from the whole ordeal, and Gwaine knows there’s no getting out of this. He sits down and Lance looks to him for explanation.

“These kids were bullying him. I didn’t see how it started or anything. But they were throwing snowballs at him pretty hard. Then I just ran, and I just covered him and they started throwing snowballs at me, those gutless — Anyways, I don’t know how he got the bruise, must’ve been a snowball or something. You should probably look into that. Get those kids expelled or something.”

Lance lets out a deep breath. “Thanks… I—“

Gwaine can’t help himself, he lunges forward and takes Lance’s face in between his palms to silence Lance. “I don’t know how to take care of kids. I don’t like them. But I like you, and I’d punch another kid’s face if they ever hurt your kid like that again. I miss you, and something tells me your kid and I will get along fine. Maybe. I don’t know. I’m willing to risk it though.”

***

Gwaine sucks at parenting but he’s trying. It’s hilarious actually. Freya teaches him how to make crepes; he fucks it up the first twelve times but he makes a good one just in time for Galahad’s birthday which falls on a Saturday. Gwaine spreads Nutella on it and puts everything Galahad likes on it. The kid’s face is brown with the chocolate by the time he’s finished with it. He thanks Gwaine with a big sloppy chocolatey kiss on his cheek. 

“What’d you get me for my birthday, Gwaine?”

“I was thinking we could go shopping and buy you stuff actually. I didn’t know what you wanted.”

“That’s cool too.”

Lance is much more on the ball though because he hands Galahad a wrapped package. Galahad opens it with glee.

“A lightsaber! Thanks, daddy! Gwaine, you should get one too so we can have saber fights!”

“Yeah? I’d lose though.”

“Yeah!” The cheeky kid says, “It’ll be fun!”

Galahad gets a ton of stuff when they’re out shopping but he also picks up a few gifts to give to the homeless shelter. He is Lance’s kid, after all.

They tuck him in when the day ends. Gwaine stands by the doorframe waiting. Lance is sitting by Galahad’s bed. “Okay, kiddo, one last wish for your birthday.”

Galahad seems to be thinking about it and then he pulls Lance’s ear to him so that Gwaine can’t hear.

Lance gawks, “Really? You sure?” And Galahad nods fervently.

“I’ll see what I can do then.”

Lance kisses Galahad goodnight, and then gestures for Gwaine to come into the room. “He wants a goodnight kiss from you too.” Gwaine can’t deny the kid anything so he does it.

“Thanks, Gwaine,” Galahad says and then his eyes flutter close. Gwaine smiles, “Night, kid.”

Lance and Gwaine are making out on Lance’s bed later when Gwaine pulls away. “What’d he want? So secretive about it.”

Lance chuckles, “You really want to know?” 

“Uh, duh.”

Lance kisses him again, “Said he wants you to stay forever, make his birthdays awesome every year. He said he wants me to propose to you.”

“Oh fuck,” Gwaine says, laughing. He can’t help the smile on his face. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. So? You want me on my knees to propose or you just want to save me the trouble and say yes?”

Gwaine licks his lips, “I want you on your knees all right.”

“Fuck off!”

“Is that how you talk to your fiance?”

“So that’s a yes?”

“Yeah, dude.”

There’s a beat, and then through the walls, a muffled shout of: “Did he say yes, Daddy?”

Gwaine laughs out loud and Lance answers back, “Yeah, he did, buddy!”

“Awesome!”


End file.
